Kenric Steel LLC, a Millville, New Jersey, steel fabrication company, faces $348,683 in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fines for four willful and seven serious safety and health violations, the agency announced February 20.
OSHA began an investigation on July 26, 2023, in response to a complaint and cited Kenric Steel for violations involving the employer’s failure to:
- Medically evaluate new employees who were required to wear respirators.
- Conduct annual inspections of overhead cranes.
- Ensure proper use of welding screens.
- Train new hires on chemical safety.
- Ensure grounding and bonding of a spray finishing process.
- Label containers and maintain safety data sheets (SDS) for chemicals.
- Install the correct circuit breakers to operate lights.
“A few months before our inspection, Kenric Steel hired a safety consultant who identified multiple safety and health hazards at the Millville fabrication shop,” Paula Dixon-Roderick, OSHA’s Marlton, New Jersey, area office director, said in an agency statement. “However, the company failed to correct the hazards, which is unacceptable. Employers are legally obligated to provide a safe and healthful workplace for all workers.”
OSHA’s citations included a willful, serious violation of the respiratory protection standard. The employer provided employees with respirators, including 3M 7700 half-face elastomeric respirators and 3M Versaflo powered air-purifying respirators, and required their use without performing employee medical evaluations for respirator use.
The agency also cited Kenric Steel with a willful, serious violation of the overhead and gantry cranes standard. Inspectors found that hoists used for moving metal and fabricated metal pieces hadn’t been inspected within the past 12 months.
OSHA also cited the employer with a willful, serious violation of general welding, cutting, and brazing requirements. Kenric Steel employees weren’t using welding screens in the welding area to protect those in areas adjacent to welding areas or others walking through the facility.
Finally, the agency cited the employer with a willful, serious violation of the hazard communication standard because the employer didn’t provide training to employees on chemicals used in the facility, including Sumpter Coatings Inhibitive Shop Coat, Carboline Carbomastic 90 Part B (a corrosive), and Acetylene gas cylinders.
Violations in OSHA’s citations of Kenric Steel included a couple of the agency’s most frequently cited standards. At the National Safety Council’s (NSC) Safety Congress & Expo in New Orleans last fall, OSHA unveiled a list of its top 10 most frequently cited workplace safety and health standards for fiscal year (FY) 2023, which ended September 30.
The most frequently cited standards cited following OSHA’s inspection of Kenric Steel included the hazard communication standard (29 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) §1910.1200), cited 3,213 times in FY 2023, and the respiratory protection standard (§1910.134), cited 2,481 times.
Requirements of the hazard communication standard include maintaining container labels and employee access to SDSs for chemicals in the workplace, as well as providing training on chemical safety. The respiratory protection standard includes requirements for a written program, medical evaluation, and initial and annual respirator fit testing.
According to OSHA, Kenric Steel is a family-owned and -operated steel fabrication business specializing in the furnishing and installation of structural and miscellaneous steel, as well as the custom fabrication and installation of manufactured safety and fall protection products.
According to the agency, Kenric Steel contested the citations on February 7.